Nothing Like an Earthquake to wake you in the morning!

This morning at 4:15am we were awakened by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chiba Prefecture. I have found that, during an earthquake, I am so freaked out that I cannot move to do anything. When you are in bed when it happens you just freeze and hope that the house does not come caving in. Later at work at 8:20am there was another 5.0 in the same place. It is good to know that my co-workers are just as frozen and petrified as I am during the shaking.

Last night my wife and daughter were sleeping downstairs because they like it a little warmer than I do. My wife's reaction is to cover our little girl in case anything comes falling down.

This October 1st Japan will begin the new P-Wave warning system. NHK will be transmitting the warning with a nicely sounding bell warning on the TV. I am totally against this. If you are going to provide a warning it needs to be a 40 decibel Star Trek Enterprise Red Alert to get your attention. This system measures the "P-Wave" that comes just before a big earthquake. Since they move faster then the quake itself you get around a 20 second warning before the world comes towering down on you. I keep wondering what I will do with that 20 seconds. Will I sit there dumbfounded for a few seconds and wonder what to do or will I take command and do the right thing? I'm just not sure right now. Check back with me after the next quake.

We were spared today. Apparently, Lima, Peru was not. They had a 7.9 today. I don't even want to think about that.